Common Topics on Shrimp Keeping (NEWBIES START FROM HERE)

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If the water becomes milky or ashen soon after you set up your aquarium, it could be a case of:
(1) Unclean gravel.
You might not have rinsed the gravel sufficiently. Drain the tank and rinse the gravel thoroughly in a pail until the water runs clear. That ought to solve the problem. This entails a lot of hard work, much of which is undoing what you’ve done, so it is important to get things right the first time when you’re doing up your tank.

(2) High levels of dissolved chemicals such as phosphates or other minerals and metal compounds.
Test the pH level of the water: it will most likely be high. If so, adding some water-softening agents ought to help.

(3) bacterial bloom, which may take several days or a couple of weeks to develop.
A newly set-up aquarium has to go through a cycle during which beneficial bacteria multiply. Milky water is common during this process, and usually shows up fairly late in the cycle.

There’s no effective way of getting rid of cloudiness created by bacterial bloom – and it wouldn’t be beneficial to do so either. You’ve got to let the cycling run its course. So have some patience; the water will clear up after the cycle is completed.

(3.a) Other factors that could trigger bacterial bloom include decaying organic material or overfeeding.
The decomposition of organic material and uneaten food releases nutrients which feed the bacteria. The solution, in this case, is quite straightforward: Remove debris, do not feed your fish an amount beyond what they can consume within two to three minutes, and make partial water changes frequently.

(3.b) Paradoxically, excessive changing of water can cause bacterial bloom.
If you remove too much water from your tank, you may disrupt the bacterial colony in the substrate, which functions as a biological filter for the aquarium. The water could turn cloudy as the biological filter re-establishes itself.

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Xmant's invention to remove seed shrimp (pest) is a practical, cheap and easy to DIY device.

http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=470578

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For the benefit of some pple who simply needs spoon feeding...

A little info on cycling a new tank
http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/sh...9&postcount=34

Generally, during cycling period, it is important to get ammonia to convert into nitrite (NO2), and futher converted to nitrate (NO3). All needs to be near zero for the cycling to be completed, which can take from mere days to prolonged weeks.

Fishless cycling is whereby, no lives are used in the cycling process. Why subject lives to torture and killing them (akin to, murder)?? In fishless cycling, ammonia is obtained from other source, eg dirty filter water from mature tank, food, or even, small pieces of market prawn.

Soil based tank needs to be handled more carefully during cycling process. Many available brands of aquariam soil contains ammonia, as well as causing pH to crash to acidic level (some even goes below pH6.0). Thus during cycling process, it is important to do water change.

Quartz based tank may be easier to cycle compared to soil, as quartz is neutral in pH attributes. Thus, the focus would be on ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

Why the need for cycling? It is to produce benefitual bacterial (bb) colony in the filter, which converts ammonia to nitrite, to nitrate. Without the bb colony, if we throw in lives, we are subjecting them to torture and killing them, as there are minimal bb to break down waste (bioload).

Our enjoyment in aquarium hobby SHOULDN'T be at the expense of lives! Stop committing delibrate murder!

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To add on to the above. Here's a few shrimp tank gravel types and setting up new tank.

1. Gravel Types
1.1 Quartz
Typically made of plastic material. I had bad experience using potentially poisonous quartz. The quartz looks matt, instead of glossy.

Anyway, for quartz, it has no pH properties, thus doesn't raise or cause drop in pH level. It does not contain ammonia either.

1.2 Soil
Soil usually cause pH to drop drastically. A lot of commercially available soil contains ammonia, which helps in the cycling process.

During initial stages of setup, if the water turns cloudy, it can be caused by 'dirt', which settles down within a day. Most of the time, the cloudiness after the soil settles, are caused by bacterial boom, which is good, as it helps breaks down ammonia to nitrite to nitrate.

2. Setting up new tank (method I have tried)
2.1 Completely new setup, new gravel
If it is based on quartz, refer to above. There is a need to introduce ammonia into the new setup. Ammonia can be found from many source. Refer to previous post for example. Can be completed within days (a week) if the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate is handled properly.

Soil wise, refer to above as well. Typically, takes longer to setup, but process can be speed up with large volume water change (aged water, anti-chlorine/chloramine treatment to prevent killing BB). A normal cycling process can take weeks (4-6 weeks).

2.2 Setting up using used gravel (mixture of some soil with quartz) and water from mature tank
Water is taken from mature tank as it contains small amount of ammonia and BB. This can be easier to setup as there is a lower chance of tank crashes compared to new materials.

In this method, I add in fishes after a few days (day 3) to continue adding ammonia (bio load) to mature the filter. Approx a week later, I started adding small volume of shrimps. Why small volume? Tis is to prevent a sudden surge in ammonia (bioload) where the BB colony may not be able to handle, thus may cause ammonia spike, which can kill shrimps overnight.

Introduction of more shrimps shd take place gradually. This also depends on the tank size. During the early stages, add in smaller quantity per batch eg 10 shrimps, each batch introduced 1 week apart. Remember, adding large volume of shrimps can cause high bioload, where the bb cannot handle. Thus be patient!

There are of cos, many other methods, many other concerns. Fellow hobbyist, please share more info that have yet to be shared in the sticky.

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From time to time, some of us faces pest problems. Hydra is a pest we don't want in our tank. There are discussion thread on how to get rid of Hydra, from snails to fishes, or even, chemicals.

Using Fishes - Galaxy
http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/sh...axy+fish+hydra

Using Snails - Pond or Apple Snails
http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/sh...ting+rid+hydra

Using Chemicals - Discourage
http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/sh...removing+hydra

nice info bro cookie

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Snail trap.
http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/sh...753&highlight=

Saw some discussion in another forum with a DIY snail trap
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums...ap-126550.html

Food to lure snails into trap
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums...ap-144201.html